Thanks to everyone who came to the U14 training day, and special thanks
to Tim and Sally for their support.

Whether or not you
were there, you might find it useful to have a look at the links below.
I hope you will find everything we showed you on the day and a few more
things that we didn't have time for. The page below has links to all
the computer software I showed you, too.

I'm not quite ready to give away all the openings booklets to the world,
but there is a list below and you can have anything you want as a PDF or a PGN
file. If you've forgotten what PDFs and PGNs are, read on...

One thing I came away with was some enthusiasm for an Exchange Chess tournament. Watch this space...

Windows Chess Software

Chess Titans

I'm sure this is a lot of fun to play against but as far as I can tell
it doesn't analyse your game for you and you can't save and load games
in the standard PGN format. There is a lot of commercial software which
will do both jobs but you can actually do everything you need for free:

Fritz 5.32

Fritz 5 can store and analyse your chess games. This is an early version
of the popular Fritz chess programme from ChessBase.

I believe that all young players should adopt and learn a set of opening systems as early as possible, and stick to them long enough be a bit of an expert in those systems. You need three or four systems to cover White and Black:

A system to play as White

A system to play as Black against 1.e4

A system to play as Black against 1.d4 and other openings

A system or set of systems to play as White when Black dodges your main line

Of course, you can play one system for both sides.

To support your choices, I have compiled over the years a set of introductory booklets:

10colle.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the Colle System
10collzuk.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the Colle-Zukertort System
10d4odds.pdf (**) - First chess adventures when Black dodges 1...d5
10d4secrets.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with Secret Weapons against Indian systems
10forrad.pdf (***) - F for Forward! Playing f2-f4 in the Open Games
10french.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with the French Defence
10gambit.pdf (***) - G for Gambit! Playing Gambit Openings
10italian.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with the Italian Game
10KIA.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with the King's Indian Attack
10Morra.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with the Morra Gambit
10oddsBe4.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with the Open Games as Black
10oddsWe4.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with Odd Defences (against the Semi-Open Games as White)
10QGambit.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the Queen's Gambit
10quid2.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with the Queen's Indian
10RuyLopez.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the Ruy Lopez
10scotch3.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with the Scotch Game
10sicilian.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the Sicilian Defence
10slav.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with the Slav Defence
10SwissD.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with the Swiss Defence
10TarraschD.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the Tarrasch Defence
10twoNs.pdf (*) - First chess adventures with the Two Knights Defence
Benonis.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with Benoni Systems
Danish.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with the Danish Gambit
FrTarrasch.pdf (**) - First chess adventures with the French Tarrasch as White
JuniorRepHeadlines.pdf (*) - An opening repertoire for young players from 8 to 80 [ http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/x/FTP/JuniorRepertoire.pdf ] [ http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/x/PGN/juniorep.pgn ]
SicSchev.pdf (***) - First chess adventures with the Sicilian Scheveningen

(*) Beginners
(**) Improvers
(***) Experts

Each of these booklets exists as a Word document, a PGN file, a CBV archive and a PDF document. Uploads will be done and links added for local players.

Chess Quotes

A quote from Richard RETI's Masters of the Chessboard(p 395):

"In general, it can be established that there are two defenses against 1. e4, which make it absolutely impossible for the first player to take any initiative, and which give Black such an even game, without any difficulties at all, that it has now become useless in practice, since these defenses are generally known. They are the Caro-Kann Defense and the variation of the French Game: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4."